Feathers
by Akktri
Summary: Teela suddenly discovers that her friends have been lying to her all these years.
1. Chapter 1: Reunion

I started finding feathers in my bed after my first period. Father said a parrot got in the window.

Then he swept them away when I wasn't looking.

I didn't see them all the time, so he was quick to give an explanation for each incident. He was testing out a new bird feeder around my window. The Sorceress was watching me. The Sorceress was watching me and she sometimes molts green feathers. Etcetera. It was always something.

I accepted the stories unquestioningly, just as I accepted the stories about He-Man.

Often, I made special trips to the Sorceress, asking her if she were okay, as she was molting an awful lot, but she seemed to have no clue as to what I was talking about. Father said not to press the matter, she was very sensitive about it, and then the feathers disappeared again.

I live on a planet called Eternia, billions of light years from Earth. When you've lived for twenty years in this bizarre place, you get used to things like magic, talking green tigers, and evil skeleton men. There's a musclebound man with a sword, a flying creature shrouded in a robe and a widebrim hat, and a magical witch that turns into a bird and lives in a giant green castle in the shape of a skull. There's even a man made of moss. Can you blame me for believing all the weird stories I've been told?  
It was only a month after my twenty first birthday that I really started to question things.

I live in a castle. It's a very futuristic looking golden structure as strange and alien as the vegetation that grows around it. The rooms are temperature controlled, and they each have their own bathrooms and showers. I get to stay here because my father Duncan is the royal armorer and captain of the guard.

It was in that shower that I first started to question the stories.

I had just finished washing my orange hair and the rest of me when I noticed the green purple and gold feathers clumping around the drain. It begged the question: Why would parrots be in the plumbing system? Was this the Sorceress? Why was the Sorceress watching me in the shower? Were her intentions less than honorable?

There were other times that things like this had happened. I'd found feathers in my bed before. Father said the Sorceress had climbed into my bed and held me while I slept.

I mean, it was possible, but a little strange. Father excused this by saying she cared for me a great deal. That was as far as he went with it. Very odd.

In a way, this made me happy, as I really didn't know my mother. I figured she had adopted me, and I felt loved. I hadn't qustioned it.

When I finished my shower and got dressed, I stuffed the feathers into my bikini top so they wouldn't be taken, then I gazed out the window as a small pterodactyl ate a plum off a branch on a nearby tree.

Creatures like that were the only thing I'd ever seen around the window.

I stared into the jungle beyond the castle grounds, watching the twin moons sink below the horizon, wondering if the Sorceress were looking at me now.

A floating red robe and a hat came drifting into the room. "Breakfast," it announced. The thing has a little boy's voice.

"Thank you, Orko," I said with a sigh.

"Problem?" it said.

"None that you can understand."

"Ohhh..." he acted like he did anyway. "Lady problems?"

"Something like that." I asaid as carefully as I could.

To my absolute embarrassment, I saw a pair of blue hands wiggling from the sleeves of the robe.

"Magic spell, be a champ! Relieve Teela of her men-"

I grabbed his hands as fast as I could. "Orko!" I snapped. "No!"

I couldn't tell if he had blushed, but he should have. I know I was red.

I quickly made my way to the banquet hall before he conjured a giant tampon or something equally retarded.

Our banquet hall is designed to hold a lot of people. The table is huge. Sometimes unnecessarily so.

That particular morning, for instance, we didn't have our usual friends in attendance, so it left a lot of empty seats. It was just me, father, Orko, the king and queen, Adam, and that lazy tiger. We all sat on the bottom corner, as undignified as it might seem. It was very...family-like.

My adopted brother Adam was on the corner, dressed in a tunic, a fur bikini and pink leggings. Perfect colors to reflect his cowardice. The yellow striped green beast went great with his personality and his pants. They were both allegedly gutless cowards.

Duncan, my musclebound adopted father, sat next to me. For once he didn't have on that gold robotic armor or anything. He just wore a tunic and tights. Something about the suit being in the shop.  
The king and queen had on their royal purple robes, as usual.

Adam. I stared at him, not even looking at my eggs and bacon as I shoved them into my mouth.

I figured he thought I was stupid, because he'd tell me a ridiculous lie and I'd appear to believe it. What he didn't know is that I was the bigger liar, since I lied about believing him.

It didn't take a genius to figure out what was going on. Whenever there was trouble, or a giant boulder to move, Mr. Pink Leotards would magically disappear and He-Man would show up to save the day. When I asked about Adam, He-Man would sneak off. They were never in the same place at the same time, and they both had a green talking cat.

This had been happening for years.

I'd stared into their faces long enough to know there was no difference. His acts of cowardice and weakness, therefore, annoyed me to no end. He could do so much better, but kept up the act just for show. I really wished he would just get rid of Adam all together and just be He-Man so our relationship could truly develop.

That day I finally got tired of the game and said it outright. "Adam. You're He-Man."

He spat out a mouthful of food. "What? No! I..."

I crossed my arms indignantly. I didn't even need to explain. They did.

"Teela," I heard father saying. "This isn't..."

"It's fine, Duncan," said the king. "Everyone here is already in the know."

Adam sighed. "You got me. I had to lie to protect you and everyone else."

"From what?"

"Skeletor!" everyone but me said in unison.

I smacked my head. "And how is my knowing my so called brother's secret going to hrut anything any more than Orko, or that cowardly cat?"

"Hey!" the cat whimpered.

I frowned. "Sorry. What I mean to say is that I can hold my own in battle. I've fought against Skeletor by myself, and I'm always here, so I don't see why you had to keep this secret so long."

Recalling the incident with the skeleton man unconsciously jarred something in my mind, but I couldn't figure it out yet.

"I'm...sorry," said Adam. "I guess I've got more physical courage than...emotional sometimes."

Father frowned. "How long did you know?"

"Awhile," I sighed. "Years. I was hoping someone would have had the guts to say something by now."

I thought about the feathers, and I suddenly didn't feel like eating. I gave my plate to the cat and walked out.

I put on my armor and walked out of the palace, wandering and climbing short cliffs without even realizing what I was doing.  
I soon found myself at the summit of a small mountain, staring at the weathered green castle shaped like a skull.

The drawbridge was closed. I stood on the edge of a bottomless pit.

I shouted for the Sorceress, but I got no reply, so I called again, and I waited.

I sat down on the edge of a cliff, staring into the depths like I wanted to throw myself in. I almost wanted to.

"...Teela, why do you come here?" a female voice said inside my mind.

"I want answers, and all I'm getting are lies and ridiculous stories. I need to talk to you about something. Please, open up."

The drawbridge slammed down on a section of the cliff with a loud bang. I hurried across the huge thing, and I was inside a massive cave lined with crystals.

The Sorceress sat on a throne on a tall dais in the center of the place. The woman wore a cape of white, blue and orange feathers with a bird headdress, and her body was covered in sort of a bikini made of feathers.

She seemed aloof in her high seat above the long staircase leading to her throne, but her face reflected an expression of weariness, sad longing, and a bit of fearful nervousness.

I crept up the stairs, stopping about halfway due to the awkwardness of the whole situation. I climbed back down.

"This is silly. Could you please come down here?"

The woman transformed into a falcon, flew down to me, and changed back to a person. She led me over to a small stone table with a pair of stone benches, gesturing for me to sit. I did.

"This is about Adam, isn't it?"

I sighed. "Not really, but that's part of it."

After a awkward silence, I pulled the feathers out of my top, holding them up as I compared them to the Sorceress's cape. I frowned when they didn't match. "I've asked you about these before."

"I spoke truthfully when I said they weren't mine."

I slammed them on the table. "But you never actually told me who or what they actually belong to. I mean, I find them in the shower. I find them under my blankets. I even find them inside my clothing sometimes. Duncan said it was you, and you say it's not. You can't both be right. Is there a male sorceror spying on me when I'm in private? I just don't understand."

She pushed the feathers closer to my end of the table. "They're yours."

At that point, the whole castle seemed to spin around me. "Mine? Those are actually my feathers? But how? Why? Am I turning into some kind of..."

Bird. The thought startled me. For a moment I couldn't speak.

The woman seated herself next to me, placing a hand on my shoulder, tears rolling down her cheeks. "Teela, remember that time I told you that your mother is very proud of you? And you said you never knew your mother, but you wished she could be just like me?"

I nearly fell over backwards on the floor. "You're...my mother?"

"I didn't want to tell you because I feared Skeletor would use you as a tool to get into Castle Grayskull and destroy me."  
I was astonished beyond speech. It made sense, even though I didn't want it to.

She hadn't been curling up with me in bed. She wasn't showering with me. Those weren't her feathers in my underwear. Those feathers were mine.

"So...the feathers. I can turn into a bird?"

"You've had a recurring dream, have you not? A dream where you have wings and fly with...mother bird?"

It wasn't a dream, I thought. I could feel my little avian heart thundering in my tiny rib cage as I soared alongside her. The great void in my life seemed mysteriously filled and I was at peace with the world. I never wanted to wake up.  
I felt my face getting damp.

But there had been so many years of deception and lies. Yes, she had my best interests at heart. Yes, she'd saved my life multiple times, but she really hadn't tucked me in bed at night like I thought. She really hadn't been there for me. Not like a real mother.

I stood up, confused, at a loss, unsure of my own identity. "That's why you taught me all that stuff. That's why the Spirit of Grayskull taught me remote viewing. That's why you promised to teach me magic. Because you knew I could do it."

"I had complete faith in you, daughter."

I thought about telling her not to call me that, but I remembered happily dozing beneath her wings and didn't say it.

"I need to think," I stammered, and then I stumbled off down a cave tunnel in a random direction, not even thinking about where I was going.

I suddenly recalled the words the...woman, and the Spirit of Grayskull had said to me that fateful day. He had said the throne was my "rightful place". He said I was the Sorceress. I was told that I was the "right person to sit on the throne", "exactly the right person." The Sorceress said she couldn't explain it to me now, "but someday, I promise."

Well, I supposed, it was better now than never.

I sat on a rock and cried.

When I noticed the floating head, I stopped crying.

The Spirit of Grayskull.

"Are you my father?" I asked the thing.

The head responded with a laugh that sounded more creepy than jovial.

"No," it said. "I am merely the spirit of Grayskull's builders."

I sighed, staring at him with my lip trembling, ready to cry again.

"Your mother really wanted to tell you a long time before now. The secret has tortured her from within. But she kept saying that she wouldn't reveal the secret to you until the time was right. Sadly, there is no right time. She would have surely passed away before letting you in on the secret, had you not approached her about it first."

"So she's as cowardly as Adam and all the others."

"I know," I heard the Sorceress sobbing behind me. "I've even used spells to erase your memories."

I turned and saw her drop to her knees, burying her face in her hands.

"I know. I'm a terrible mother."

Something in me became unhinged. I got up, wrapped my arms around her shoulders, and said, "It's okay, mom."

We held each other and cried.

When we let go, I said, "So is Duncan my real father?"

She chuckled. "No. Though if circumstances were different, I would have considered it."

"It's not Fisto, is it? Please..." I didn't finish. I would have said, "Please tell me it isn't," but I had enough of lies.

She visibly shuddered at the suggestion. With a violent shake of her head, she said, "No."

She took a deep breath. "He...He..." she stammered, as if trying to come up with a story. "I refuse to lie to you any longer. Your father lives in the north mountains. His name is Jad. He was once a great warrior, but is now an alcoholic. It is said that he died in battle, but that was a lie. We...merely went our separate ways. If you must seek him, I will not stop you, but I must insist that you learn how to use your powers first."

"Is he that dangerous?"

She slumped her shoulders. "No. I just want to spend more time with you, and prepare you for the time when I'm no longer around."

I laughed. "Okay, mom. How about we start with flying and transformation lessons? I'm so tired of finding feathers in my clothes."


	2. Chapter 2: Lost Loves

I spent the rest of the day practicing magic with my mother. I mastered changing back and forth from a bird form, expanded my existing knowledge of remote viewing with the magic crystal, and learned a few protective spells.

"So you know about He-Man," she said as she showed me how to cast an illusion of myself.

I nodded. "You can only fool a person so long. I know he's Adam. And it makes me sick. He really needs to grow up and stop pretending to be Adam."

"It's not an act, Teela. The power of Grayskull allows him to be He-Man. It always departs from him when it's not needed. Hence the danger of ever sharing this information with outsiders."

This made me even more nauseated. "So he really is that wimpy without the power?"

"Yes. Unfortunately. He has an...artifact that links him to the power. If-"

"It's the sword, isn't it?"

"Did you see that in the crystal?"

"No, it just makes sense. I've seen it happen. When it's gone, we're always helpless."

"Oh, you were never without help."

I rolled my eyes. I have always sought out her wisdom, but at other times, she sounds just like a fortune cookie.

"What I mean is, you shouldn't blame Adam."

I swallowed. "I don't. It's just...the ridiculous lengths he's gone to deceive me."

"He only wanted to protect you and the kingdom."

After thinking about it for a minute, I said, "What about his personality? Is all that his? Or did Grayskull...improve him?"

Mom laughed. "No, dear. That part of him is genuine." She gave me a warm smile. "You love him, don't you?"

I frowned. I wasn't so sure anymore. The deception was a turn off, but I really didn't have anyone else. I had a man with a really long neck, a moron with springloaded legs that liked to ram his head into walls, a freak with a changing face, a green man who talked to fungus, and Duncan's brother who liked to fist people with his giant gauntlet. I really needed to stop hanging out at the palace. "I...don't know."

The sun was setting outside the castle windows. Mom had magically provided a lunch for me, but I decided it time to check in at the palace. Hugging my mom goodbye, I turned into a bird and flew out a window.

It saddened me to know what mom couldn't actually leave the place, except in bird form. It depressed me to think I'd have the same fate when she left Eternia, but someone had to protect the castle until evil left the land forever.

I was just contemplating how backwards the whole plan was, and how ineffective we were in stopping this evil at its very core, when I noticed a young woman with white hair and a bone plated purple bikini weeping at the edge of a nearby cliff.

Evil Lynn.

At first it didn't register in my bird brain, but after circling her a few times, I recognized who she was, and automatically suspected she was up to no good.

I perched on a bush and watched her for a moment, but her behavior didn't change. It seemed she was just crying to be crying, no sideways glances or anything to arouse my suspicions. When I first saw her, I was going to report her to mom, but now I felt sorry for her.

It was hard for me at first. I'd hated the woman so long. We've fought. Almost killed each other. But I've seen people change. And the way that she looked...I just felt bad.

I flew closer, transforming into myself right in front of her.

It was then that she lifted her head and gave her characteristic evil sounding laugh.

"Oh Teela, how wonderful it is for you to make me smile after crying so many tears." She wiped her eyes. "You know haven't had a healthy laugh in a long time. Mostly it's been the drugs."

"Drugs?" I gawked at her in surprise. "What do you mean `drugs'?

"Please," she groaned. "You couldn't have been that naive. How many times have you seen me laughing when there wasn't a damn thing funny? Why do you think I laugh over people's misery? You don't think I'm so heartless as to laugh simply because pain and suffering amuses me, do you? Even a grade school bully wouldn't be that callous!"

"Drugs," I repeated. I thought it was I that was on drugs, as much as my mind was reeling.

"Yes. They've ruined my life. I've stopped taking them." She held out a hand, and it shook like a leaf. "See these withdrawal symptoms? I've been hiding from my pain so long. The stuff has made me a wreck." She wept. "I'm tired of all of this."

I stared at her like she'd grown a second head. None of this was anything I'd never expected from the most evil woman on Eternia.

I'd never seen the actual person underneath that proud, callous facade. My stomach contorted as I struggled to process the information. Although I kept telling myself she was lying, and not to be trusted, a part of me wanted to believe her, to actually do something help her.

"Evil Lynn," I stammered. "W-what are you doing here?"

"Please. Just call me `Lynn'. I'm tired of these games."

She didn't want to be called Evil!

I never understood why she wanted to have that name to begin with, but dropping it after using it so long... It was hard for me to even say it. I kind of had to bite off the first part. "`Lynn'. What are you doing in front of Castle Grayskull?"

She sighed. "As if I didn't know where it was. I've been here enough." She shook her head. "I need the sorceress's help, but she won't let me in. There's no one else on Eternia that can possibly help me." I could hear a sob creeping into her voice as she choked out that last part.

I forced a laugh. I still didn't want to believe her. "You? Need help from her? Now I've heard everything!"

"It's true." I saw tears rolling down her cheeks.

"Drug rehabilitation?" It seemed logical enough.

She gave me a look like I was right, but she shook her head violently. "No! It's about my boyfriend!"

Boyfriend. I could think of only one person who could even slightly fit the bill. The mere thought made me want to gag. "Skeletor, you mean?"

She nodded. "His name was actually Keldor. He used to be a good man." She paused. "Good...ish."

I pictured Mr. Skeleton Head petting puppies and playing Santa. The idea of him being anything other than a malicious creep seemed ridiculous.

I chuckled. "So what do you need, a love potion? Birth control pills?"

That only made her cry worse. "Don't make fun of me, Teela." She clenched her fists. "You don't understand anything. I'm tired of being evil. I only helped Keldor do those awful things to be close to him. I hoped and prayed that deep within his harsh exterior was the man that once loved me, but I feel like I'm losing him every day."

She swallowed. "I know I'm not worthy to enter Grayskull, but I would go anywhere and give my very life if it meant getting back the man I love."

The way she kept going on about it made me feel like she was telling the truth. It made me feel even sorrier for her. I know I probably shouldn't have, but I did.

"I'm going to get help," I said with a lump in my throat. "This had better not be a trick."

"It's not."

I was putting my trust in a woman that had betrayed everyone who ever trusted her, time and time again. I felt like a stupid fool, but I couldn't get over this nagging feeling of guilt unless I did something. My only hope was that mom was smarter than me, and would make the right decision when I asked.

So I sent mom a telepathic message (one of the other skills I learned).

To my surprise, the gate to Grayskull opened, and mom was asking me to bring her in.

The second most dangerous enemy on Eternia, and mom invited her into the greatest source of power on the planet.

Lynn didn't have that magic staff I'd always seen her with. When I asked about it, she said she threw it into the bottomless abyss below the castle. That actually made me a little more comfortable.

A little.

I found mom seated on her throne, looking imposing. Lynn seemed cowed by her presence, and she remained shockingly well behaved. Earlier, I had half expected her to run inside the castle and steal some sacred weapon or another, but she hadn't.

"Mom," I said. "She wants help with her boyfriend."

Mother looked unsurprised. "You wish to break the spell that turned your man into a walking skeleton," she said.

"What!" the woman cried. "How did you know?"

My jaw dropped in surprise. "He wasn't always a skeleton?" The fact she wasn't actuallly a necrophiliac made me a lot more sympathetic to her plight.

Mom waved her hand dismissively. "I have investigated this matter for quite some time. But the curse couldn't be lifted until Keldor's one true love came forward and sought the cure."

"What is the cure?" she blurted.

Mom gave her a pained smile. "Patience, daughter. All will be revealed."

"Wait," I said. "Why did you call her daughter?" I hoped it was something like how people sometimes would call a friar `brother.'

Mom stood up. "I call her daughter because she is." She let out a troubled sigh. "I'm sorry. I didn't tell you, but..." She started crying, staggering down the stairs. "There's a lot going on, Teela. I didn't want you to get involved in all this, especially with her involvement with Skeletor. I'd put everyone in danger."

"She disowned me," Lynn choked.

Another deception? I blinked away tears. If this were true, I had been trying to kill my own flesh and blood. All these years, and nobody told me. "How do you know you were disowned?"

"I used magic," she said with tears running down her face. "I reversed the memory erasure spell she cast on me."

"If you knew, why didn't you say something?"

She shrugged. "You already treated me like trash. What would be the point?"

I looked away, wiping my eyes.

"I had to do it," said mother. "You were with the wrong kinds of individuals. I couldn't have any part with your wickedness."

I suddenly felt sick. "Are there any other secrets you're holding out on me, mother?"

She sighed. "An entire universe, I'm afraid. It comes with knowing so much magic."

I felt angry. I felt confused. It took awhile for me to regain my composure.

We seated ourselves at the stone table and had a good cry.

"My father is the Faceless One," Lynn sniffed. "My last name is Powers. Teela can't be my sister."

"Correct. She is your half sister, so to speak. Your father's name was Faruk Powers. He fell into a chasm while fighting a frost demon. He now haunts Snake Mountain." She looked away, towards some high point along the wall. "The time for grieving is passed."

I never knew Faruk. I had the crazy urge to go visit his ghost, but the thought of visiting his abode made me nervous, frightened even.

"So there was another man?" I asked.

"Yes, dear." She became wistful, her eyes taking on a dreamy faraway look. "He was wild and reckless, but also kind and very compassionate. Come to think of it, he has a lot of similarities to He-Man." She pressed a hand to her chest, as if remembering him touching her there. "That handsome face...those mysterious dark eyes...so much like a stage magician, in a romantic sort of way."

"Like Keldor," Lynn sobbed.

The mental picture made me sad. In fact, I started thinking that maybe Skeletor wasn't such a bad guy after all.

"Mom, what must I do to get my boyfriend back?" Lynn asked.

Mother stood up. "Daughter, ever since Keldor received that curse, I have kept a magic item in a secret place, to aid you in your quest." She bowed her head, sobbing a little. "Even though I disowned you, I never stopped loving you, daughter."

"You...sent He-Man to save my life that one time, didn't you? That time Keldor was going to throw me to the Shadow Beast?"

She nodded.

I couldn't imagine why she'd want to stick with a man that treated her like that, but in matters of romance, I knew I wasn't going to get a rational explanation. "You must...love him a lot."

Lynn only cried and gave me a nod.

Before all this, I mentally questioned her devotion, holding on to the belief that maybe this was all an elaborate act. But not for a second did I notice any contradictions in her behavior. I figured if she were acting, she was trying a little too hard.

Mom led her down a tunnel to an alcove containing an object that suspiciously resembled a bird bath. Lynn leaned over the lip, staring down.

"This is the Font of Guidance," mom told her. "The water will show the object of your quest when you place the most potent symbol of your love in its center."

I couldn't help but lean closer. Seeing an article of love from a woman like that would be like seeing a two headed goat.

I saw tears falling from her face, splashing down in the water. The liquid seemed to shimmer in response. "I can't," she sobbed. "I...I got frustrated and threw it into a lava pit."

Mom stretched out her hand, offering her a shiny gold ring.

I stared at the ring with amused curiosity. It definitely looked like a gift a stage magician would use, festooned with sculpted playing cards and bunnies and doves. Cute.

More of Lynn's tears fell in the basin. "How did you-"

"Magic," she smiled.

Lynn took it, holding it over the water, but before she could even drop it in, the surface exploded with a brilliant light and pure white smoke.

"Your tears," mother explained. "They have more value than even that circle of gold."

She dropped the ring in anyway.

The smoke turned purple, and we could see an image in the water, a giant black mountain carved into the shape of a giant serpent in a sea of lava.

I'd been there, but never in the best of circumstances.

"Snake Mountain," said Lynn. "Is it there? Was it there all along?"

The waters shifted and the image of a glowing circle in a ring of stones appeared.

"The portal to Hordak's dimension!" she muttered. She scowled at mother. "But that bumbling musclehead destroyed it!  
There's nothing left of the thing!"

I remembered hearing about how He-Man destroyed something like that in Skeletor's domain. For awhile, we did actually fight the forces of that Hordak character, and it almost destroyed all life on the planet. I shuddered at the thought of it still existing.

"There must be more than one," mother said. "Perhaps this is why he still has power over him."

Hordak was a terrible demon that had caused a lot of evil and suffering on Eternia before Skeletor came around. His connection to Skeletor had never been clear to me before that moment.

The way they described it, he had been using Skeletor as a puppet.

Before, I had wanted Skeletor dead. Now I knew the real enemy. Hordak had to be destroyed.

Lynn frowned at the water. "So where is it then?"

"Patience."

The water rippled, and a corridor appeared, then a dark cave with a wall obscured by a large rack of clubs and crude weaponry.

"Beast Man!" she cried. "He's been hiding it there the whole time!"

Beast Man was a dimwitted thug who frequently sent dangerous animals to attack our palace. I had guessed he probably stayed in Snake Mountain, but I wasn't sure why he had an important magical artifact behind his wall. Of course, I didn't know all there was to know about the place anyway.

Lynn clenched and unclenched her fists. "So we need to get through that wall somehow and destroy the portal."

As if in response, the water rippled, and she saw a barren wasteland, and herself marching across it, then an image of a strange looking gray woman with glowing red eyes, long flowing white hair, and a black and red dress that ended in tentacles. She seemed very sad and listless.

"Who is that?"

"That is Zoabela, Hordak's mother. It seems your quest is not as simple as merely destroying a portal."

The oracle didn't show whether we were to kill the lady or talk to her, but I figured killing her might do the trick.

The image changed, and I could see a musclebound figure with a floating skull for a head seated in a throne made of bones.  
For once, he didn't appear to be scheming or plotting anything. Instead, he was halfheartedly producing a playing card from the gloves of his blue bodysuit.

He caused the card to burst into flame, then, with a wave of his hand, it became a rose, then a tiny black bunny rabbit with luminescent orange eyes.

I forced myself not to laugh.

When someone next to him laughed, he made the rabbit vanish. "What are you looking at!" he shouted.

I chortled, trying hard to look serious.

Lynn smiled a little, then cried again. "How do we find this woman?"

"The waters show you traveling through the Shadow Dimension. Hordak has been imprisoned there as punishment."

I wasn't too familiar with the concept of the Shadow Dimension, but I heard that He-Man once stopped Eternia from being pulled into the place. It sounded like the land of the dead. It wasn't something I ever wanted to visit. I felt a chill running down my back.

"This is madness!" Lynn cried. "No one has set foot in the shadow realm and lived!"

Mom just sighed and shook her head. "If it were easy, Ske-Kaldor would have been restored to his former self aeons ago."

I could see the truth in those words. It seemed like all we did was fight Skeletor. Something should have been accomplished by now. Nothing we had done so far had really solved anything.

Lynn bowed her head. "So be it." She looked up into mom's eyes with an expression of grim determination. "I'd give my very life, if it meant bringing back the man I love."

I still couldn't believe what I was hearing. It was like some other person had taken over her body, and the wrong words were coming out. Someone I could almost be proud to call sister.

Mom gave her a faint smile. "I always knew you had a good heart."

"You won't be going alone," I blurted before I even understood what I was saying.

"Teela? You? Helping me?"

It was too late now. I couldn't take the words back without being...her. "What are half sisters for?"

Maybe that wasn't my whole motivation. I don't know. I just felt like I had to do it somehow.

I guess I wanted to make up for all those times I hit her.

Okay, so we were good sparring partners. But still, I really failed her as a sister, and I wanted to make it up to her. And more importantly, I wanted to end Skeletor's reign of terror once and for all.

Lynn hugged me. It was the most alien sensation I'd ever experienced, but there was genuine warmth to it.

"Thank you. You'll never understand how much this means to me."

I sighed, realizing I just signed my own death warrant.

"Great things can be accomplished when you summon the aid of friends," mother said.

"Are you my friend?" Lynn asked.

Mom fell silent, staring into the distance.

"That's a no, isn't it?"

"Lynn, I shall always be your friend, but leaving Grayskull unguarded could mean the collapse of all Eternia."

She'd told me the same thing frequently. I didn't like it, but it did explain why I never saw her walking around the palace or anything. I guess everyone has to grow to love their family members, perfect or not, even if it makes them sick to their stomach. Sometimes there is real caring there, even if you can't see it right away.

Mom leaned against a wall like all the strength had gone out of her legs. "Solicit the help of He-Man and his friends, and ask me again." I heard her fighting back a sob. "I need time to think."

Wow, I thought. That's a tall order.

But then I remembered the story about him rescuing Lynn, and I supposed that anything was possible.

"He-Man!" Lynn cried. "Why would I want that simple minded thug-" She frowned at me. "Do you really think he'd want to help me?"

"I...don't know. Maybe."

My mom slumped against a stalactite. "He-Man is stubborn, but his heart is swayed by a...humble honest soul in need of help." I knew she meant `good soul', but Lynn couldn't work that angle.

Mom turned away, lost in thought again.

We left the table, walking back to the giant door that served as the skull castle's mouth. As we approached it, the door crashed down like a drawbridge, allowing us passage across the abyss.

"Where do we find this oaf?" Lynn asked.

I supposed she was used to speaking about people in insulting ways. Considering my feelings about He-Man at the moment, I really didn't care. "We'll have to go to the palace."

"I feel like I should wear a disguise."

"Mom said `an honest soul.' There has to be another way."

Then it came to me. I snapped my fingers. "I got it. I'll put you in jail, and I'll bring He-Man down to meet you."

"Fine," Lynn sighed.

She clapped, and a pair of manacles appeared out of a cloud of smoke. She threw them to me. "This had better work!"

* * *

Author's note: I've run into a block.  
So far, I haven't watched a single episode of She-Ra Princess of Power, so I don't currently have a handle on any of their personalities. This story will continue and eventually conclude once I acquire the DVD box set, which probably won't be anytime soon.  
Until then, thanks for reading!


	3. Chapter 3: New Prisoner

Okay, so I know enough about the show to assemble a few more chapters, but once I get into Hordak territory, I'll be blocked again.  
Yes, the plot is a little fast, but I'm not trying to rewrite the show from the beginning, I'm just trying to add closure. Be glad I didn't just start it with "Teela is in a room..."

The trip back to the palace was kind of surreal. Lynn kept cracking jokes and asking me weird questions. She asked me if I and He-Man were an item, to which I replied maybe. She tried to get me to explain, amd share more of my feelings, but the most I could do was vaguely comment that he kept too many secrets.

I think she understood. She then asked if I ever dreamed of turning into a raven.

I explained how I had the same dreams, and that she might be able to transform like me, and she didn't believe me. But then she starts muttering about how Skeletor put bars on the windows and her flying dreams often involved Beastman staring her down, and drugs. When I asked about the molting, she thought the black feathers belonged to Beastman's pets.

After hiking for a bit, the palace came into view, and I put the manacles on her, pretending like I were forcing her to the gates.

When a pair of soldiers in gold armor stopped us, I told them I had caught her spying on the king and she had weapons. Since she already had a history with the palace, we were soon ushered into the palace dungeons.

Our dungeon isn't that bad. It compares to earth prisons in the fact that, due to various laws, it's clean and hygienic and has a gym and TV's and such. Okay, it's still a jail, but it's preferable to the dank pits they have in Snake Mountain. It made me feel a little better about leaving my sister there.

Immediately, I returned to the palace and sought out Adam. Some time had passed, so it took me awhile to find him.

He was outside in the garden, with a tank full of suds, trying to bathe the tiger. The way it clawed the sides and stretched itself over the lip, it looked like he'd need to turn into He-Man to get the thing washed.

I was about to help, but then I saw dad stepping around a pillar with a hose.

"Teela!" he said just as Adam was getting half of Cringer's body into the water.

Adam got so distracted that he let go of the tiger and it bolted off into the garden somewhere.

"Teela," Adam stammered. "Look, I'm...sorry..."

I waved my hand dismissively. "It's okay. I get it. There's a lot at stake." I sighed. "Listen. I've got...Lynn in the dungeon. She...wants to speak to you."

He suddenly looked pale. "Lynn?"

"Evil Lynn?" I promoted.

"Oh. What does she want?"

"Adam, do you believe people can change?"

He puffed out his chest, eager to dispense pearls of wisdom. Actually, corny nuggets of optimism, but I let him say his piece, even though I almost felt like slapping him.

"Teela, anyone can change for the better, if they really try."

"Even Ev, Lynn?"

He paused. "There is good in her. I have seen it." Then he frowned. "But she keeps going back to her old ways."

I saw an expression flash across his face that made me think he found something too good to tell me, but I told myself not to get jealous until I had the facts.

"Teela, it is one thing to forgive, but it is quite another to regain a person's trust!"

"My mom trusts her enough to let her into Grayskull."

His eyes widened in shock. "Your-"

I could see the cogs turning.

"Your...mother? You mean...you found her?"

I nodded.

"But how did she open Grayskull?"

He still didn't get it. "Oh, I dunno. Because she lives there?"

"She what?"

"She lives there," I repeated.

He opened his mouth to protest, but I held up a hand to silence him. "The bird lady."

I thought he was going to faint and fall into the bath. "You mean your mother is the..."

"You mean you didn't know?"

He shook his head violently. And then he stared at me.

"Teela, this is really awkward. I mean, all these years..."

I shrugged. "Deal with it."

After another moment of awkward staring, I saw him fishing a tiny gold object out of his furry pants.

An engagement ring. This was the last thing I wanted to think about at the moment.

"Teela, I know this isn't exactly the best time for this, but..."

I thought I was going to die. Or at least fall backwards into a rose bush, but then a muddy green tiger knocked him into the tub, and the engagement ring was buried in the suds and Cringer's filth.

I sighed in relief. I couldn't believe his audacity. No, I couldn't believe I was so eager to say yes. Anyway, I was glad for the reprieve.

The moment Adam resurfaced, before he could fish out the ring and embarrass me again, I quickly said, "Turn into He-Man. Lynn won't know who you are otherwise."

"So you didn't tell her."

"No."

"Let me get my sword."

He had left it in his room, but I had brought it down and hidden it in a shrubbery. Before he could get away, I cleared my throat and handed it to him.

He gawked at me again. I could tell he was going to ask how I knew to bring it, but then realized he already knew.

Instead he blurted, "You know, you'd really make a great-"

"Do you think Skeletor can also change?" My question was redundant. I just wanted him to talk to me about something else for awhile. I needed time to think.

Adam paled. "He's here, too?"

"No. I just want you to keep an open mind."

He narrowed his eyes. "What's really going on, Teela?"

And so I told him about Lynn's boyfriend and his curse.

"So," I said. "Can you and He-Man help me?"

He gave me this expression like he were about to do the most distasteful thing in the universe. His hand gripped the sword, and I saw him looking around like he were trying to run off.

I crossed my arms, clearing my throat. "Going somewhere?"

He turned red. "I was just going to get He-Man."

"You can get him right here," I smirked.

He was beet red when he held aloft his magic sword and,...you get the idea.

I had never seen him transform before. There were sparks flying everywhere the sword pointed.

First he holds it, and his muscles expand, and he's wearing nothing but...that harness and a furry loincloth.

Before I can properly react, I see the sword pointing at me, and I'm tingling all over, head to foot.

My muscles feel larger, and for some reason I'm wearing a strange costume that's covered in scales and rainbow feathers. I've even got a headdress, some sort of snaggle toothed reptile head that gives me the impression of being swallowed by an alligator feet first.

"Teela?" He-Man said with worriment.

"I'm okay." I stared at my hands, which were now enclosed in scaly gauntlets. "What did you do to me?"

"I...dunno. I usually point it...in that general direction...when I'm changing Cringer into Battlecat."

"Then how come I don't look like Battlecat?" I thought about what that would look like and shuddered. "Not that I'm complaining."

I saw a mischievous smirk cross his features. "I don't know. The power of Grayskull just makes anything it touches more powerful. You should have seen what it did to Orko."

The idea of a musclebound floating robe made me laugh.

I shook my head. "Lynn's not going to recognize me. Can you change me back?"

With a shrug, he commanded my power to return by the power of Grayskull, and I returned to normal.

"That wasn't a bad look," he remarked.

I laughed. "You're very bold when you're He-Man."

He didn't reply.

When I returned to the dungeon, I found Lynn sitting in a heavily guarded common room with other prisoners, watching a documentary about spiders.

Stepping in there proved to be a bad idea. Eight guys tried to attack us and the rest threw spit wads and other trash. He-Man may be the talk of the countryside, but he's no friend to criminals.

The guards restrained most of them, but we ended up knocking four of them against pillars and prison bars.

We grabbed Lynn, put her in manacles, and quickly hurried her out before He-Man could throw a fifth man into a bookshelf.

He-Man led my sister into an interrogation room, and they stared at each other across the table for awhile.

At last, He-Man said, "I asked you before if you wanted to join the side of good, and you basically said you were having too much fun being evil."

She sagged in her chair. "It's not fun anymore. It was mostly the drugs talking. Plus it's impossible to defeat you in battle anyway."

"Drugs?" He-Man stammered.

She nodded, explaining everything. I had never seen He-Man looking so glum.

"For once, Ev, Lynn, you have me convinced." He stood up, gesturing for her to do the same. "Let's go pay your...boyfriend a visit."

"What about these manacles?" Lynn asked.

He cocked his head in the direction of a security camera. "We'll let you go in a year or two, provided you show exceptionally good behavior."

She glanced at the camera and nodded.

Since we were not on a first name basis with the guards, I could somewhat understand the precaution, especially if we weren't inviting anyone else on our little expedition, like father, for example. Being the most powerful man in the universe anyway, I figured He-Man didn't need that much help to begin with.

And so we silently marched up the corridors, past the guard posts, and with casual strides, walked on out of the dungeon.

Since He-Man is often considered the law, I guess it wasn't much of a surprise we got away.

We thought we were doing good until we reached the palace gates.

That was when we found ourselves in a Mexican standoff.'

The three of us against all of the crazy guardians of the palace. The head ramming guy, the android, the humanoid bumblebee man, and everyone else I knew. They blocked the gate in such a way that I wouldn't be able to pass without knocking some of them down.

Duncan stood at the front, crossing his arms with a surly expression on his face.

"Father," I stammered.

"Going somewhere, Teela?"

I swallowed. "I..." I couldn't think of a way to get around it. There were too many people. I racked my brain for a good lie.

"Teela, sometimes honesty is the best policy."

Lynn shook her head in disagreement.

I winced.

"He'll never let us out," my half sister muttered. "Free my hands so I can do a spell."

"Father," I called. "You may never understand this, but there is something I need to do to save my sister." I put a hand on her back. "Please, father."

A chorus of murmurs erupted from the crowd.

"Teela," Duncan said. "I saw the video. Did you forget I was the chief of security?"

"Then you'll understand why it's important for us to bring...Lynn to the Sorceress," He-Man said, brandishing his sword.

"I'm here, He-Man," mom said, marching out from behind the man with the long neck.

Overjoyed, Lynn ran to her, but her hands were still shackled, so she just stood there and smiled at her. Mom gave her a hug, and the two talked, marching back to He-Man.

"Sorceress," he said as she approached. "As glad as I am to see you, aren't you supposed to be guarding Grayskull?"

Mom stared at him with a grim expression. "If we truly succeed on our quest, we will no longer need the power of Grayskull ever again."

The big lug looked astonished. "But Sorceress! Surely you know as well as I that evil doesn't begin and end with Skeletor, or even Hordak!"

"Yes, He-Man. But for my lost daughter, for Eternia, to end Skeletor's terror, I'm willing to risk everything."

"Admirable goal, Sorceress," he said. "But how do you propose to do that?"

"First, we must go to Snake Mountain."

He-Man straightened. "Then every moment we stand here, we are putting all of Eternia at risk."

She nodded, marching back to the crowd.

He-Man stomped up to father, gripping his sword. He gestured for me and Lynn to follow.

"Stand aside, Duncan," he said. "I think we have a way to save the lives of every man woman and child on Eternia, but you must first let us leave."

"Only if we can come with you," father said.

I think I can piece together one more chapter before reaching the Hordak section.


End file.
